


Kissin' Keith Kogane

by JoelAmarez



Category: Holes - Louis Sachar, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Criminal Keith (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Holes au, Kind of in the Holes fandom, M/M, Texan Keith (Voltron), au based off of it., ish, kind of happy ending?????, kissin' kate barlow au, klance, people die, she wanted this au and i was like ayyyyyyyye, sometime around 1888??????, teacher! keith, this is dedicated to a friend who basically gave me this idea, this is one huge feels train, this is why i can't have nice things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 14:25:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10414176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoelAmarez/pseuds/JoelAmarez
Summary: The town of Green Lake had always been a paradise. Everyone around Texas would take a trip to the town in the summers. Many folks referred to it as Heaven on Earth, which it really was.Key word being "was".A friend of mine really wanted a Kissin' Kate Barlow AU and I was like, "Ayyyyyyyyeeee, Klance."So. Here we are. And , uh..... Hi?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Letting y'all know now, none of this shit it edited. Sorry. Let me know if you catch any screw ups.

Keith Kogane was a school teacher who taught the children in Green Lake during the day in hopes for a brighter future and the adults during the night to better educate them. Most of the men that went to the night classes just went to be in Keith’s presences. It was an unsaid statement that Keith was admired by both men and women. No one had a problem with it. They needed Keith as a teacher for the young and a tutor for the old and middle aged. Everyone enjoyed Keith, he didn’t smile often, but when did, it’s like sunshine falling in through the breaks of leaves into a forest. He loved the children and he had a growing friendship with the town’s onion picker, Lance McClain. 

Lance sold all types of onion products; toxins, juices, lizard oils, sweet onions, and many more products. He has a ‘secret onion patch’ just across the lake that he’d row to with his boat, Mary Blue, that he built himself. Lance was very friendly and most of the town liked his presences there despite him being from Cuba. Lance was kind and followed all the rules and didn’t cause any trouble. His personality was welcoming and persuading, especially when selling onions. He said he had family over in Louisiana and that they had given him the family donkey as a departing gift after going through a few years of tutoring. 

 

The school bell rang and Keith dismissed the children with a half hearted smile. “Be sure to practice your verbs.” 

Most of the children walked with Keith over to the onion cart like they did every other day. 

“Onions! Get your sweet, sweet magical onions here folks,” Lance yelled to the passing crowds of people. “Get your health potions, oils, elixirs, toxins! Onions! Sweet, sweet onions, nature’s magical onions, folks!” 

The children ran ahead to greet Lance with smiles and giggles. “Mister McClain! Mister McClain!” 

Lance chuckled and gave a nod to the children. “Hey there youngins. Y’all doing good in school? Listening to Mister Keith?” 

The children gave bright smiles and happy nods. “Yes sir!” 

“That’s good. Get your education and you’ll be able to go places. Like Egypt.” Lance squatted down to the children’s level. “The ancient Egyptians knew the secrets of the onion. Knew that they kept you healthy, cured stomachs, toothaches, headaches, sores, moles, and extended your life, like Mary Blue here,” Lance stood back up to scratch her maine. “Mary Blue is over a hundred years old, all she eats is onions.” 

“How would you know that Lance? You’re not a day over twenty-four.” Keith smiles brightly as he puts his arm over one of his student’s shoulders. 

“Onions are a magical vegetable, Mister Keith.” Lance gave Keith a smile right back. Lance grabbed a bag from the cart. “For you Mister Keith, a special bag of onions.” 

Keith smiled slightly and took the bag. “Thank you, and your peaches.” 

“Thank you, Mister Keith.” 

A few buildings down, Lotor and some of the other men talk.

“This here Green Lake is like heaven on Earth. Those peaches are the work of an angel,” said the town baker. 

Lotor gave a smile to Keith has they made eye contact. Keith smiled awkwardly and looked away. Keith gave his attention to Lance; as they kept talking and Keith’s bright smile made it’s way back across his face. Lotor fumed a bit and laughed at a joke one of the others had just said as they turned away. 

“Come on boys, let's go get some drinks,” Lotor said to the others. 

 

The sound of school bell got lost in the rain. 

“School dismissed! Remember, school tomorrow rain or shine!” Keith yelled over the deafening sounds of the rain. 

“Yes sir!” They yelled back. 

Keith was about to walk back into the school when he saw Lance doing something odd. 

‘Is he… dancing in the rain?’ Keith thought to himself. “Lance! What in the blazes are you doing?” Keith yelled over to the onion picker. 

“Ah! Mister Kogane, nice to see you here on this lovely day!” The onion picker gave the teacher a bright smile. Lance waltzed across the street, quite literally, over to Keith. “Come, join me for this dance?” 

Keith glowed lightly, but gave a shy nod as he took Lance’s hand. 

They danced for who knows how long outside the school house. 

Finally Keith said, “Let’s head inside the schoolhouse and dry off before we both catch pneumonia.” 

“You go ahead of me, I’ll meet you inside Mister Keith.” 

Keith nodded as he ran back into the school. Lance ran to his cart to grab something before he made his way back to the school house. 

Keith was finishing drying his hair as Lance walked back in. 

“Here, I thought you might still like some more onions,” Lance said as he began to walk across the the room with a bag of onions in hand.

“Why, thank you Lance.” Keith smiled slightly. He switched one of the vases under one of the many drips from the ceiling. 

“I can fix that,” Lance said as he helped change a vase. 

“Lance, are you going to try to tell me now that your onions are a cure for a leaking roof?” Keith said jokingly. 

“Naw, I’m just good with my hands. Built my own boat, ya know.” Lance walked closer to Keith. “Need it to get across the lake to my onion patch.” 

“I assume you’d be in real trouble if your boat leaked.” Keith accepted the sack of onions from Lance. 

“I’ll fix your roof for three jars of your spice peaches, deal?” Lance held out his hand as Keith placed the onions down. 

Keith smiled gratefully and shook Lance’s hand. “It’s a deal.” 

 

The children are let out of school once again. 

“Well, Mister Kogane, I guarantee that roof for five years.” 

“Thank you, Lance. Your peaches,” Keith said as he handed Lance a crate of peaches. 

“Thank you, Mister Kogane.” Lance placed the peaches down in his cart. “If there’s anything else, I’d be happy to help.” 

“Ya know, those windows won’t open, and the children and I would enjoy a breeze every now and then.” Keith smiled and tucked his hair behind ear. 

“I can fix that.” 

They shared a glowing smile. 

“And this maiden lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me.” Keith read to a child during after school. She had wanted Keith to read her something by Poe. “She was a child and I was a child, in this kingdom by the sea; but we loved wi-”

“With a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee.” Lance continued the poem that he read to his young siblings when he lived with his family as he finished fixing the last window. He smiled and turned to Keith. 

“Lance,” Keith gasped out with a bit of happiness. “You know, that door doesn’t hang straight.” Keith smiled. 

Lance looked to the door and back to Keith. “I can fix that.”

 

“The cat sleeps near the lake,” one of the men said slowly. 

“Yes, good job Mister Baker.” Keith said kindly. Lance put his tools down in the corner after working silently on the door. 

“The cat may sleep near the lake, but my daddy owns the lake,” Lotor mocked. The room of men laughed and Keith frowned as he placed his glasses on his desk. Lotor winked at Keith and he resisted the urge to glare and instead straightened some papers on his desk. 

“That’ll be all for tonight.” The group of men departed from the building and Lotor walked up to Keith’s desk and sat on one of the corners. 

“So Keith, I was thinkin’-” Lotor started. 

“What a surprise,” Keith muttered to himself. 

“And I thought, how about we have a picnic tomorrow since there’s no schoolin’ for the children. We could take a ride on my motor boat.” 

“No thank you, Mister Walker,” Keith said blankly.

“It’s brand new, you don’t even have to row it,” Lotor urged on. 

“I said, no thank you.” Keith began to turn to the chalkboard to erase the writing.

Lotor grabbed Keith’s wrist and turned him back around. Lance tensed up. “Come on now, Keith. Hey,” Lotor moved closer to Keith. “No one ever says ‘no’ to Lotor Walker.” Keith’s build was much smaller than Lotor’s, but his frame was smaller than most men’s in general.

Keith stared him in the eyes defiantly as he said, “I believe I just did.” And then jerks his wrist away and moved past him to collect the papers from the desks. 

Lotor huffed as he pushed one of the desks roughly out of place and walked out. 

Once he left, Lance walked over and straightened the desk to its original spot. 

 

The school bell rung and a few of the students stayed after. Lance had just finished touching up a few things during the end of class. 

“Mister McClain! Mister McClain!” They gathered around him. 

He chuckled. “Yes?” 

“Do you and Mister Keith like each other?” One of them asked. They all looked from Lance to Keith and back with hopeful eyes and sweet innocence. 

Both adults laughed awkwardly and Keith answered, “Even if we did, we couldn’t be together.” 

Sounds of disappointment chorused throughout the group of children. “Why not?” A few of them whined. 

“Because most folks frown upon relationships like that. If the world was just a little more open, then you all would be satisfied.” Keith chuckled. 

“Okay, how do we open the world?” One of the children asked. 

Keith stared, shocked for a moment, before he regained his senses. “It’s a figure of speech. What I meant was that the world.. It isn’t… open to these types of relationships.” Keith tried to figure out how to tell these open minded children how close minded the world is. 

“What’s the difference?” One of them questioned. 

“Huh?” Keith had still been trying to find out how to explain it. He wished that they lived in a world where that wouldn’t even be something difficult to explain. That the world had been more accepting. 

“What’s the difference?” She pressed on. 

“Yeah, what is the difference?” Lance finally added. The question was more to himself about society then it was to Keith. 

“The difference is that normal relationships, like your mother and your father, haven’t been frowned upon and ones like the hypothetical relationship between Mister Lance and I have.” Keith tried his best to explain to the children. 

“Fine. But if the world were different, would you two like each other?” Another asked. 

Keith glowed and had suddenly been at a loss for words. “I... erm… Well, you see, I… uh…” Keith kept looking from child to child as if one of them would have given him his ability to speak back. 

One of the children smiled mischievously. “Mister Keith likes Mister Lance!” He sang. 

Soon all the children began to chant it and it had only made Keith glow more as Lance snickered. 

Keith was finally able to quiet the children down and had each one promise not to repeat that to anyone else, and them still having been children, took pinky-promises to the grave of their childhood. 

The children departed and Keith and Lance walked over to the onion cart, Keith carried a couple crates of jarred spice peaches. 

“Here you go Lance, a token of my gratitude for all you did around the school.” Keith placed the crates in the cart. “Lance,” Keith gazed at the building that looked completely new, “this is the finest school house in all of Texas,” he smiled. 

“It was a pleasure, Mister Keith. Thank you for letting me help you.” Lance looked at Keith’s smiling face and smiled himself. Lance pulled the feather from his hat and handed it to Keith. “This came from one of the most beautiful owls I had ever seen over in Louisiana, I want you to have it.” 

Keith looked at the feather and then back at Lance. He smiled shyly as he took the feather. It was long and was brown with some blue spots. Keith looked back up at Lance and gazed into his ocean blue eyes. “Thank you, Lance, this is beautiful.” 

Lance nodded as he gathered empty sacks and bottles, placed them on top of the crates of peaches, and carried them over to his boat. Keith watched Lance row across the lake, thoughts filled his mind. He pushed them back down as Lance got further away. After Keith stood at the edge of the lake for quite sometime, he returned to the school house with the feather in hand. 

 

Later that night, Keith had been half way through a love tragedy and thoughts of Lance had swirled in his mind. He knew he had fallen in love with him, but what hurt was that he knew he could never tell him. He could never hold Lance in his arms, he could never fall asleep on Lance’s chest, he could never live a long and happy life with Lance. Even if Lance did return his feelings, they could never be together in this world.

Without realizing it, Keith had been crying. Rain pitter pattered on the roof as the lightning struck across the sky and the thunder clapped. Tears had fallen onto his book. ‘The leaky roof.’ He thinks to himself. 

A tanned hand entered his vision and took his carefully and lovingly. Keith looked up at the onion picker as tears continued down his face. 

“I can fix that,” he whispered. 

Keith stood up and began to smile slightly. 

They slowly began to lean in closer, they felt each other’s warm breath as their lips neared. Once their lips met, Keith took in a sharp inhale as he tilted his head. He rested his hands on Lance’s chest and Lance loosely hung his arms around Keith’s waist. The kiss was long and loving and sweet. 

Neither one had noticed that Lotor had been riding past the window and saw them. 

The two finally pulled apart and Lance kissed away Keith’s tears and then placed a gentle kiss on each of his eye lids. Keith rested his head on Lance’s shoulder as Lance swayed them slowly and hummed a soft toon as he ran his fingers through Keith’s hair. He pressed another kiss to Keith’s forehead. 

Lotor boiled with anger and rode back to town. 

 

A few hours after Lance had left to get ready for another trip across the lake, a mob of drunk, angry men rode over to the school house with torches. They had begun to circle the building and toss the torches at while yelling. 

“Stop!” Keith screamed. “Stop it! Stop it!” He ran away from the burning building, helpless to stop it and unable to stop the drunk men from continuing. 

He kept trying anyway. “Stop it! You’re burning the school!” He screamed once more, his throat was becoming raspy. 

He began to run to Sheriff Sendak’s office and jail. 

“Sheriff! They’re burning-” Keith stopped short. He could smell the liquor radiating from Sendak. “They’re burning the school! You need to tell them to stop, they won’t listen to me.” 

Sendak turned to Keith in his drunken state. “Give me a kiss.” He grabbed Keith’s arm. 

Keith stared at him for a short moment. He jerked his arm away. “Get drunk!” 

“Already am.” Sendak wiped off the corner of his mouth. “Always get drunk ‘fore a hanin’.”

Angry tears welled in Keith’s eyes. “If you hang him, you better hang me too,” he growled, “because I kissed him back.”

“Ain’t against the law for you to kiss him, it’s for him to kiss you. You’re not gonna to get hung ‘cause you’re the only teacher within a five hundred mile radius. We’ll need you to teach the children because god knows that no one else here can.” With every word spoken, Sendak had stepped closer to Keith. “And from what Lotor has been telling everyone, Lance had sexually harassed you and threatened that if you tell the truth to anyone, he would kill you. Do you think I’m going to believe the son of the town owner or some no name, dirty Mexican?” And with every step closer to him, Keith had backed away two. 

When Sendak was about to pounce on him, Keith ran out back into the streets. 

He needed to get to Lance. He knew how things worked, he has heard all kinds of stories. ‘They’ll most likely get to him and kill him themselves.’ Keith thought. ‘I need to get to him. We can runaway together and live in the mountains, we can live with each other for the rest of our lives and be happy.’ 

“Lance!” Keith yelled. He got to the edge of the lake and crashed into Lance’s embrace. 

“Keith? What’s wrong? What’s with all the racket going on in town?” 

“We need to leave, now. Let’s runaway and live together, please?” Keith cried. 

“Okay, come on, let’s go.” They got into the boat and began to row across the lake, but they didn’t get very far. Lotor’s motor boat had caught up with them and Lotor shot Lance.

Keith’s screams had been heard for miles. He sobbed as some men dragged him onto the other boat. 

 

The next morning, Keith was dressed in a red suit and tie with a black button up shirt. He had crimson lipstick on. He walked into the sheriff’s office. 

“Sendak, you still want that kiss?” Keith walked up to his desk. 

Sendak looked up and smiled, but only panicked when he realized Keith aimed a pistol at him, but it had been too late. The sound of a shot fired boomed through the cells as the prisoners watched, absolutely stunned. 

Blood blossomed from Sendak’s chest and Keith leaned over and pressed a kiss on his cheek. The lipstick stained his skin. “Lance was Cuban, you uncultured bastard.”

Keith rode out of town shortly after having stole Sendak’s horse. 

 

Keith’s life turned into one full of crime. He joined a posse who called themselves Voltron. He was voted the leader shortly after the previous one, Shiro, was gunned down on one of their raids. Keith lead the group, but stayed distant from all of them. Allura had tried to get him to tell his story one night, but all she got was, “It’s in the past, I’m not digging it up.” They decided that they should just let it go instead of push the matter. 

He had quickly earned himself the name of “Kissin’ Keith Kogane” due to whenever he took another victim, he left a crimson kiss stain in their cheek. 

The group robbed banks all along the south. They left trails everywhere. With every passing year, the group grew smaller and smaller due to either they got killed escaping, or they got caught and hung. Eventually, Keith was on his own once again. He longed for the end of this lengthy road people called life. He wanted it to end. He was growing tired and weak. He missed Lance so much, he began to hurt more and more every time he sat alone at a campfire. He tried to carry on as long as he could. He was always tired and no amount of rest helped. But sleep doesn’t help when it’s the soul that’s tired and bandages don’t help when it’s the heart that’s bleeding. He kept doing his best each and everyday, waiting for which person it would be that would bring him to his downfall that he yearned for. He began to rob banks all over the country, he swam in riches. He had put on a tough act for the towns and the sheriff departments, many pictures that made it into the newspapers had usually shown him smirking as everyone was helpless to stop him. 

 

About twenty years later, Keith decided that he had had enough. Obviously no one was able to gun him down like they did to all of his comrades. Like they had done to Lance.

He went back to Green Lake, Texas and buried his fortunes. He found Mary Blue, the boat, and just sat against it for a few days. Didn’t eat, didn’t drink, barely slept, didn’t even move. He wanted to die right there. 

He felt Death creeping closer to him. ‘About time, you bastard. You’ve been avoiding me for over the past twenty years,’ Keith thought to himself.

He thought he was about to die. He had to be almost dead. Because, here Lance was leaning into his side, waiting for Keith to pass into the afterlife. He was so close to death, Keith thought he could almost touch Lance. 

Then he heard the sound of foot prints that brings him back to reality. ‘Okay, who the fuck is it now.’ Keith sighed inwardly as he swiftly aimed his pistol at the people who so rudely interrupted his death. He looked at them. 

‘Well, I’ll be damned. It’s Nyma and Lotor.’ 

“Where’s the loot?” Lotor said. He had a shotgun aimed at Keith. 

‘Ha. Surprise, surprise.'

“There ain’t no loot.” Keith tossed his pistol to their feet. Nyma quickly grabbed it and aimed it. 

“Don’t give me that! You robbed every bank from Hell to Houston,” Lotor shouted impatiently. 

“We saw you earlier with a shovel, Mister Keith,” Nyma mocked the last part. 

“Nyma, you were such a good student in my older classes, had a bright future.” Keith laughed tiredly. “Must have married him for his money.” 

“It dried up with the lake, it hasn’t rained a drop since the day they killed Lance!” Nyma’s voice became louder than it needed to be. Damn, what does a guy have to do to die in peace around here? “Now tell us where the loot is or he’ll kill you, he’s a desperate man these days!” 

“Go ahead, shoot me. I don’t care.” Keith turns his blank stare back towards the waste land that used to be a lake. “The lake goes on for miles.”

“I ain’t going to kill you, but by the time I’m finished with you, you’re going to wish you was dead.” Lotor laughed, but the joke was on him. 

Keith laughed along with Lotor and Lotor stopped laughing. “I’ve been wishin’ I was dead for a long time.” Keith looked back to Lotor. “You, your children, and your children’s children will dig for the next the hundred years and you’ll never find it.” 

A yellow spotted lizard ran out from under the boat and hissed. 

“Look out!” Nyma yelled as Lotor shot at it. 

It scampered back under the boat. 

Keith reached down and said softly, “Come here sweet heart.” 

The lizard stared at him as it was halfway from under the wooden boat and Keith picked it up. 

“Start diggin’ Lotor.” Keith held the squirming lizard near his arm and laughed as it’s venom entered his veins. 

‘The sweet embrace of death is finally here,’ Keith thought.

**Author's Note:**

> So let me know what you thought, leave a kudos if you liked it or if it was beautiful but you hate me for messing with your emotions. And check out my other stories.
> 
> I will be working on chapter ten of FIL later. 
> 
> And hit me up on Tumblr, Instagram, Wattpad, Twitter, Facebook, pr whatever @JoelAmarez (you'll see me, I'm hard to miss.)


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